Monthly Archives: June 2012

After about a decade and a half of work, I finally got the first copies of my latest book, Face Value. It’s out! It’s a history of money, of the ways Americans imagined what money was and what value was. Some of it’s been adapted for this blog. It’s my third book, if you count editing […]

Part of an occasional series on “lesser-known DC” The “building” is so grotesquely out of place on the Senate side of the Capitol lawn. Surrounded by hurrying self-important staffers, high-priced lobbyists, and the constant hot bluster of politics, it’s quiet, cool, and enigmatic. It’s hopelessly impractical. It passes time, not legislation. Hundreds of thousands of […]

Maybe you’ve seen this astonishing Obama ad featuring Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue talking about all the incredible women she gets to meet including Sarah Jessica Parker, and urging you to enter a contest to have dinner with Wintour, “Sarah Jessica,” and the Obamas. It’s pretty amazing. I find it deeply creepy, but I’m suspicious […]